360 REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 
alitis semipalmatus, Æ. montanus, both of which species, as 
already noticed, are omitted from the list, though it is hard to 
suppose that in either case he could have mistaken the one bird 
for the other. 
While faunal lists of the birds of the western states and terri- 
tories are so very desirable, they more than defeat their usefulness 
unless prepared with a considerable degree of accuracy. If the 
writer of the present list had restricted it to a smaller locality, 
say for instance a single county, and had added from his note 
books more explicit data, especially in respect to the times of 
arrival and departure of the birds, his catalogue would have had 
far more value as a faunal record, and would doubtless have been 
as a whole much more accurate.—J. A. A 
Newron’s ORNITHOLOGICAL Reeister.*—The pamphlet before us 
is a description of a Record of Ornithological Observations made 
by Messrs. A. and E. Newton for the years 1850-’59. Great ad- 
vantage flows from a continuous series of such observations in any 
department of Natural History, and the system devised and per- 
fected for this purpose seems to us very praiseworthy. It is diffi- 
cult to gain an idea of this unique register without inspection ji 
an accompanying lithographic sheet representing a month’s record 
in fac-simile; but it will suffice to say that the record is kept al- 
most entirely by means of a few simple but expressive sy mbols, id 
use and purport of which may be readily learned. By these signs 
a day’s observations may be duly recorded in a few moments, and 
the system reeommends itself for this if for no other reason. 
Prof. Newton says that the benefits accruing were “out of all F 
portion” to the time and trouble bestowed ; and not the least a 
these, was the enforcing of a habit of close daily observation, 
essential to the culture of practical ornithology. Many ya "a 
valuable, and some novel, facts were ascertained respecting be 
movements, the pairing, nesting, singing of birds, and their gen ne 
habits. It was unexpectedly discovered, among other things, t r 
the meteorological observations made in the hope that one nE 
observations might throw light on the other, gave negative ee 
no birds proving reliable weather-prophets. We should judge this 
the digestion of the great mass of material accumulated m °°" 
igre Newton: 
*On a Method of Registering Natural History Observations. By A 
From the Norfolk and Norwich Society’s Proceedings, 1870. + ) 
